Day 023-031 - The Rest of Job

It's been a while since I wrote on this blog and even now having finished Job I'm not going to write about each section. Job is a tricky book to read devotionally as it really needs good study to glean what is useful and what is not as most of the book is four fallible humans trying to figure stuff out. This leads to them misrepresenting God and he affirms this at the end of the book when he turns up. Often I'd read something from Job or one of friends and be impressed by the wisdom of it and then wonder whether it was in fact Godly wisdom. What we have in Job is a book that is the Biblical equivalent of a bunch of blokes talking in a pub and therefore a lot of nonsense is spouted on all sides.

What has struck me most through reading Job is the assumption of God in the midst of suffering which is a marked contrast to the way our modern western society views things. Suffering seems to be one of the main things that lead people to reject belief in God completely, the argument goes something like, "How can God exist if x, y and z are happening." Job and his friends on the other hand are quite happy with the fact of God's existence and couch their debate in terms of Job's perceived righteousness to try to explain why he is suffering.

In Romans 1 we read that:

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

The Biblical picture is consistent with this and yet we now live in a world where this is denied by so many. The book of Job is therefore a refreshing antidote and a glimpse of a world where God is recognised if not always understood.